Movies by Ellen Plessow
Freies Volk
Directed by Martin Berger.

Fräulein Else
While staying with her aunt at a fashionable spa, Else receives an unexpected telegram from her mother, begging her to save her father from debtor’s jail. The only way out, it seems, is to approach an elderly acquaintance in order to borrow money from him. Through this telegram, Else is forced into the reality of a world entirely at odds with her romantic imagination – with horrific consequences.

Heaven on Earth
Reinhold Schünzel plays the rigid representative Traugott Bellmann, who publicly condemns the low morals of the night life. Although Belmann's stance is supported by his wife, he is strongly opposed by his father-in-law, a champagne manufacturer. But when he inherits 500 000 Marks in cash and the infamous nightclub "Der Himmel auf Erden" ("Heaven on Earth") from his deceased brother, Bellmann really gets himself into trouble: In order to fulfil his brother's will - and to get hold of the money - , he has to be at the club every night at 9 pm.

Die Prinzessin auf der Erbse

Distinguishing marks: none
Post-war Germany: Like so many other women, Gerda Krause has lost her husband during the war and has to fend for herself and her two children. She finds work as a seamstress but refuses the offering of her department chief Zimmermann to upgrade her qualifications. One day she meets Uschi, an old friend of hers, whom she has helped with schoolwork before the war and subsequently lost track of. The reunion reminds Gerda of her childhood dream: to become a teacher. Thus, she decides to enroll at university to make her dream come true.
The Morals of the Alley
Explores the ethics of a Berlin street during the Weimar era and the struggle for survival in a shady environment.